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Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Twistin' some dough....

One of my favorite snacks to make is homemade pretzels. They freeze and reheat well. I was flipping through my to-try pile and came across this recipe that I found some time to make them today. We prefer to have a softer crust on our pretzels with a good chew to them. This recipe, Soft Pretzels, lived up to its name. I did make some small changes to the recipe though.

To help the dough rise in our cold kitchen today, I turned the light on in the oven before I started preparing the dough. By the time it was ready - the light had heated the inside up to 82 degrees! After the dough had risen enough (gently poke 2 fingers into the dough, if the marks stay - it is ready) we cut up the dough and started rollin' and twistin'. They are quickly dunked in simmering water, coated with an egg glaze, then sprinkled with salt. These would also be very good topped with cinnamon sugar, which I will have to do next time. Baked until a deep golden brown, we finished them with a brushing of melted butter and enjoyed a couple fresh out of the oven.

Dinner tonight, Broccoli-Noodle Casserole, used a pasta I had yet to try. I found a whole wheat egg noodle the other day and used it here. This is a white sauce, noodle, broccoli combination that is topped with a couple cheeses. If you go through the ingredient list, this is actually a pretty darn healthy dish. As usual, I used mostly low-fat items (not fat free though, as I find the texture suffers quite a bit.) If you don't have time to blanch some broccoli, you could always use frozen, but I find I like the texture better when I use fresh. Also, if you have a picky eater or do not like the look of cottage cheese, feel free to puree it before adding it to the white sauce. Cayenne added just enough heat to make it interesting and you don't taste the nutmeg, it just adds that little "something".

I've never used whole wheat egg noodles but I bet spinach noodles would be good too. I think I would add mushrooms but even without them the broccoli cheese combination is a real winner. I am definitely trying this soon!